Ubaid Hyder
In childhood, everyone is an adventurer in his own way, I was one also. The adventurer in you sprouts out even more when you have a garden in your house with trees, flowers and a nice area to dwell in and above all when you have a big brother of about the same age as you.
I was a bird watcher. I loved to watch and play with birds, fed them with the broken left out bread pieces in fact every day from a small wooden kitchen-window of my house. I was so much attached to birds that my mother used to scare me by saying “if you spent so much time with these birds, you’ll one day become a bird yourself”. But even this didn’t stop me. The most curiosity in me was that I wanted to touch these birds, become a friend with them and make them fly around me, but every time I tried to go near them, they flew away. This irritated me.
One day I listened from someone that birds love music and they get attracted to it. And then when my parents bought me that small music player as a toy, I began to run with it in my hands around the birds and played the music to attract them towards me. Although it also didn’t work, but my passion never ended.
Climbing trees was my hobby and my brother’s too. We both used to climb trees and the one who climbed first was adjudged the best climber. My brother always won.
One day, while we were climbing a tree in our garden, my brother found a small nest with some small eggs in it, between two twigs of the tree. He was fascinated and overjoyed, so was I. It was the nest of ‘bulbul’ (a commonly found bird in Kashmir). He immediately grabbed those small eggs in his tender hands and went to show it to our mother. I followed.
As my mother saw the eggs, she lamented us and told us that it is a sin to steal the eggs of birds. She ordered us to return the eggs to the nest and not to disturb it. We both felt bad, and thought we have made a great sin. We hurriedly rushed to that tree, but as my brother was about to place those eggs in the nest, they developed cracks and broke down on the spot! We both cried! Mother heard us and came running from the kitchen. She saw the broken eggs in the nest, and understood why we were crying. We had thought that by breaking these eggs we have committed a grave sin and Allah will never forgive us for what we did, so we had started crying. Mother consoled us and to make us feel good, she told us to go to the mosque, offer prayers, make a dua (prayer) and Allah will forgive us. We both became happy and did as the mother told us to do.
I still remember it was the time of Magrib (dawn) prayer as we went to the Masjid for offering prayers. My brother and me both prayed to Allah to return the eggs back, it was just a childish prayer, as it was impossible to happen, but we were children back then and didn’t knew all this. We had a complete faith on Allah and his existence. As we returned from the Masjid, we both hurriedly went to the tree to see the nest again. To our surprise, the eggs were there, not the broken ones but the unbroken and they were appearing so well that as if nothing had happened to them at all. The eggs had come back somehow. It was just a miracle! We were fascinated! Our joy knew no bounds.
We told about this to everyone, and they heard it as a childish talk and pretended to believe while not really believing. But it didn’t bother us. We both were happy that Allah forgive us, heard our prayer and didn’t let a bird loose her future young ones.
I don’t know whether it has a scientific explanation or not, but it happened in my childhood. I don’t know whether you believe it or not because it’s one of the mysterious memories of my childhood that I wanted to share. Lord knows the best. He has created a wonderful world.
The article first appeared in print edition of June 21.
